Knowledge: Xming

From andLinux

Xming is the leading free unlimited X Window Server for Microsoft Windows (XP/2003/Vista). It is fully featured, light and fast, simple to install and is a standalone native Microsoft Windows application.

Within andLinux, it is located in C:\Program Files\andLinux\Xming, and should be running before coLinux starts.

Contents

X Server

An X server runs on a machine equipped with a screen, keyboard and mouse and is able to transmit your input to other programs as well as to display whatever these other programs tell it to draw on the screen. The language the X server uses to dialog with programs — called the X protocol — is conceived from the beginning to be transmitted through a network; this means that the programs and the S server can be on two different machines, distant from one another, running different OS and still able to communicate.

Suppose you are launching xeyes on coLinux; this program will look for the DISPLAY environment variable, which normally is set to DISPLAY=192.168.11.1:0.0, which points to the IP address of Windows on the other side of the TAP-Colinux interface. The numbers 0.0 are translated into a port number, on which Xming is listening. Then, xeyes will ask Xming to draw those romantically beautiful eyes from which you can't tear your gaze away :-).

Xming is based on the same source code as X.org, which has been ported to Windows to turn it into a fast and full featured X server.